Peculiar Voltaic Arrangements. 143 



jecture, that electrolyzation, i. e. chemical action of a specific 

 kind and voltaic electricity are the same thing ; in other 

 terms, that what we call an hydro-electric current is but a 

 particular motion of the elementary molecules of an electro- 

 lyte ? There is another fact which, in my opinion, bears 

 strongly upon the subject in question. As far as my know- 

 ledge goes, a co7iditio, sine qua 7iofi, for constructing an effi- 

 cacious hydro-electric arrangement, is, that one of its compo- 

 nent parts be a chemical compound of a certain kind, i. e. an 

 electrolyte. Placing myself upon the ground occupied by the 

 strict voltaists, I cannot see the necessity of such a condition ; 

 and I am unable to conceive why simple bodies of them- 

 selves (without the interference of electrolytes) should not be 

 capable of producing currents. But if I adopt the principles 

 of the chemical theory of galvanism, and if besides I con- 

 sider the hydro-electric current as a particular chemical 

 motion of the elementary molecules of the electrolytic com- 

 pound, I can understand well enough why an electrolyte 

 constitutes an indispensable part of an hydro-electric arrange- 

 ment, and why for instance a pair of zinc and platina being 

 plunged into mercury is incapable of exciting current electri- 

 city, although the latter metal chemically acts upon zinc, and 

 though the three bodies mentioned are arranged after the 

 manner of a voltaic circle. According to the views which I 

 now hold, and to the adoption of which I have been led by 

 my late researches, I am very far from being prepared to 

 allow (as I formerly did in accordance with De la Rive) to 

 any sort of chemical action the power of causing the phaeno- 

 mena of a current. It is only the decomposition of an elec- 

 trolyte, which I consider as the source of hydro-electric cur- 

 rents, and it is for that reason'why I do not believe that nitric 

 acid, for instance, produces any current within a voltaic ar- 

 rangement by acting chemically upon some metallic parts of 

 the latter. 1 hope to be able to publish before long a series 

 of results, obtained from researches which I recently made for 

 the purpose, to prove the correctness of my views. For the 

 present I deem it sufficient to state one fact in support of 

 them. Two cups are filled, one with chemically pure nitric 

 acid of ordinary strength, the other with an aqueous solution 

 of potash, (being entirely free from air) and the two cups con- 

 nected with one another by means of a platina wire. If now 

 a copper wire be put in the acid fluid, a zinc wire in the al- 

 kaline solution, and the free ends of both wires made to com- 

 municate with the galvanometer, a current makes its appear- 

 ance, the direction of which is such as to show that zinc is 

 positive to copper. The same result is always obtained 



